Straight Up Shower
by Keeper of the Fandom
Summary: Percy discovers an unexpected application for his powers, one that he's unable to turn off. Jason is sent to see why the Son of Poseidon is having a mental breakdown, and more than one secret is revealed. No smut in this version.
1. Shower

Percy Jackson was having a mental breakdown.

If you were to ask him, he would have said everything was fine. He was a demigod; everything was _always_ fine. However, if you just took the time to just study him one day, you'd notice the signs. His eyes were constantly flickering to lock gazes with empty patches of air, his smile seemed just a tad bit strained, and every so often his eye would develop a twitch. And the worst part was, it seemed completely random and unconnected to everything else.

The rest of the crew was worried.

At the moment, the Son of Poseidon was in his room, reading. The book was in Ancient Greek, which of course negated his dyslexia, and it detailed all known facts about demigod powers. He was veritably engrossed in the book, so much so that when Jason knocked on the door, he didn't even glance up.

"Come in!" the raven-haired boy called, flashing the Son of Jupiter a grin before returning to his book. "Hey there, flying bug zapper. What's up?" he asked, his eyes still scanning the pages, and Jason bit his lip before getting to the point.

"Perce, the crew's worried about you. These last couple of days you've been really distracted. You randomly stare off into space, you've, ah, developed a nervous tic, and now you're rocking back and forth while you read," he said frankly, and Percy blinked before looking down at himself.

So he was.

"It's worrying, and a little bit creepy, so we wanna know if anything's wrong," Jason concluded, worried himself, but he was barely acknowledged by Percy. The boy had gone back to his book.

"Okay, now that's just rude," Jason groused in annoyance, stepping forward and plucking the book out of his hands, "What are you even reading about that's so interesting, anyways?"

"Blocking my powers out," the now-annoyed Son of Poseidon snapped, taking a swipe at the book, but Jason held it out of reach and eyed him with speechless incredulity.

"Why?!" the blond questioned after finding his voice again.

The slightly-insane demigod blushed, averting his eyes and biting his lip. "Nothing you need to worry yourself about," he assured unconvincingly, making another grab for the book, but Jason put it behind his back.

"I think I _do_ need to worry, because it's obviously something that's making you tear your hair out. C'mon Perce, we're worried," he implored, and with the worry and concern shining in his eyes, Percy felt his resistance crumbling.

"Fine. But...don't laugh," Percy made him promise, and at Jason's nod averted his eyes in embarrassment.

"I...I can, uh…" Percy began awkwardly, then sighed in annoyance and continued, "I can sorta kinda.." quieting down to a mumble halfway through.

"Pardon?" Jason asked with a raised eyebrow, and Percy huffed

"I can sorta kinda..." he repeated hesitantly, but once again it was lost to mumbling.

"Speak up, Jackson!" Jason ordered, annoyed, and though he wasn't praetor anymore his voice still held authority.

"I can sense when you guys shower, okay?!" he barked in embarrassment, color flooding his cheeks as Jason stared incredulously, "I can feel the water, running through the pipes, and falling through the air, and streaming d-down your b-bodies..,"

Percy blushed even more furiously as Jason began snickering. "C-can you now?" he got out through his laughs, making Percy blush even more.

"Yes, I can. And you wouldn't be laughing if it was you," he said hotly.

"Pretty sure I would," Jason said with a grin, but with an angry glare, Percy explained further.

"The water makes outlines of you guys. It's like having silhouettes acting everything you do in there," he said primly, and Jason's expression promptly turned to one of surprised embarrassment. "Exactly!" Percy yelled triumphantly.

"Can't you just...I dunno, ignore us? Read a book, play a video game?" Jason asked with a blush, sounding sort of desperate.

"Sometimes, but then it'll flicker across my mind and I won't be able to distract myself again," Percy admitted, and Jason gave an exasperated sigh.

"Great. Now I'm gonna be self-conscious in the _shower_ ," he moaned, sitting down on Percy's bed and burying his face in his hands, and with a quick glance at the door Percy patted a hand on his back in comfort.

"At least it's not Leo that can sense it," he said, and Jason's head shot up, staring at Percy in mortification before he groaned and flopped onto his back.

"You can hear that? Like, through the vibrations of the water or something?" he asked in a resigned sounding voice, but Percy blinked in confusion.

"What? No, that's ridiculous. _We_ can hear that through the thin walls," he said bluntly, and Jason groaned even louder before he pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes.

Suddenly Percy stiffened, then flopped back next to Jason. "Great," he moaned, "Someone's turning on the shower,"

Jason felt his lips quirk, but he forced the smile back and asked, "Is it really _that_ horrible? I mean sure, you know more about us than you ever wanted to, but you'll get used to it. Like, 'oh, Leo's taking a shower. Good to know'."

"Most of you, yeah," Percy agreed, turning his head to look at Jason slightly as he admitted in embarrassment, "But there's...a certain person..."

"You mean your 'stormy-eyed seductress'?" Jason asked with a smirk, and at Percy's gaping look he advised, "Perhaps you should put a lock on your book."

Percy flushed and smacked Jason on the arm, protesting, "That's private!"

"So're the things you draw," Jason said airily, "I mean really. What would Annabeth say if she saw how you draw her?"

"Probably something along the lines of 'KILL IT, KILL IT WITH FIRE'!" Percy said sadly.

Then suddenly his eyes flickered closed as he shuddered, letting out a sort of small whimper. Jason stared at him in concern and slight embarrassment as the Son of Poseidon regained his wits, explaining to Jason in a slightly rough voice, "It's Annabeth taking a shower."

"So?" he asked in slight confusion, and Percy twitched a bit.

" _So_ , every drop of water in that bathroom is an extension of my senses! It's like having a thousand fingertips running down her body but not being allowed to touch!" he explained hotly, glancing every few seconds in the direction of the bathroom, but when Jason still looked skeptical he explained further, "Imagine having Leo sprawled out right in front of you and not being allowed to even _look_."

"Oh dear Gods, you poor boy," Jason sympathized loudly in sudden understanding, reaching out and pulling Percy to his chest as if to protect him from his own powers. Percy merely raised an eyebrow and gently extracted himself from the son of Jupiter's grip, smiling slightly at his teasing grin.

"What's wrong!?" Nico demanded as he burst into the room with his Stygian iron blade drawn, stopping in confusion as he saw only a completely calm Percy and Jason.

"Everything's fine, Nico. Percy's just antsy over his powers," Jason explained smoothly, tactfully keeping Percy's particularly attuned sense of Annabeth out, but it didn't seem to matter.

"Finally realized he can sense us in the shower, did he?" Nico asked with a smirk, trying to hold himself back from snickering, but he was unable to at Percy's flabbergasted expression.

"How do _you_ know about it?" Jason inquired curiously, and he gave him a wide grin.

"Persephone asked me to record his reaction," he admitted, going over to the bookshelf on the other side of the room and plucking a camera from its place there. He dropped it into his pocket as he admitted casually, "It seems Aphrodite's been...whispering to her about things."

"Yeah, well, that's not all. There's a certain person that gets to him more than the others..." Jason hinted, flinching back as Percy smacked him on the arm, but Nico only looked confused for all of half a second before understanding flashed smugly across his face.

"You mean his 'stormy-eyed seductress'?" he asked with another snicker, and once again, Jason burst out laughing at Percy's mortified expression.

"How do you know about _that_?!" the poor boy demanded in a high, hysterical voice, and Nico raised an eyebrow at him.

"You should hide that book of yours better," he advised conversationally, and Percy fumed, twitching slightly.

"Something happening? I could sense the feelings of bloodlust from the crow's nest," Frank explained from the door, and at Nico's raised eyebrow added hastily, "I got Piper to cover for me 'til I get back."

The eyebrow went back to its original place.

"Percy can sense us in the shower and is getting all worked up about a certain person he can't ignore," Jason explained shortly.

Before Percy could add anything, the shape shifter asked in amusement, "You mean his 'stormy-eyed seductress'?"

" _Does_ everyone _know about that_?!" Percy exploded angrily, but Frank merely shrugged.

"I dunno about them, but my stepmom is Aphrodite. Dad sometimes lets a few things slip when he's arguing with himself," he told them.

Percy twitched at this news, asking in a voice full of barely-controlled anger, "Do they _usually_ argue about me?"

Frank, ironically oblivious to Percy's near-warlike state of mind, replied, "Oh yeah, all the time. Ares proposes killing you at least three times a day, but dad always tells him no, Athena and Minerva would murder them both at the same time for taking away Annabeth's little flame."

Jason raised an eyebrow and Nico snickered once again, but Percy merely grew even more angry. "Great. Now deities _other_ than Aphrodite are messing in my love life," he groused, glaring at the ceiling in aggravation, "Next thing you know I'll get locked in Hephaestus' forge."

"Hold on, back up," Nico interrupted suddenly, turning to assess Frank with a critical gaze, " _Annabeth's little flame_?"

The child of war froze, looking incredibly like a deer caught in the headlights as Jason and Percy pinned him with their gazes as well. Sighing in resignation, he admitted, "Yeah. Aphrodite told him that she's even _more_ crazy for Percy after that whole thing with Tartarus, but she won't admit it. Even to herself."

"What? Why not? She was all for him before all this stuff with Gaea started," Jason asked in confusion, and Frank glanced over his shoulder as if the daughter of Athena would be standing right there behind him. When it turned out she wasn't, he leaned in a little and lowered his voice.

"Something about a dire curse whispered in her ear."

Percy stared at him a second longer, then calmly got to his feet.

"And just where are _you_ going?" Nico drawled as Percy scooped up some clothing from his dresser and made his way to the door.

"I feel like a shower," he said over his shoulder as he left the room.


	2. Ambush

"He'll probably need help," Nico decided as soon as Percy left the room. Although the son of Hades had a bored expression on his face, the steely glint in his eye had him striding over to the door to check that Percy was really gone. When he didn't see him, he called up to Leo on deck.

"What's up, Ghost Boy?" Leo asked as he bounded into the room, stopping dead as he saw Frank and Jason looking at him expectantly. A coil of nervousness collected in his gut as he asked, "Whoah. What's with the get-together?" hoping that today wouldn't be the day they had his 'no more inventing things that may try to kill us' intervention.

That argument would get heated, and blood was _so_ hard to get out of the floors.

His fears were assuaged by Nico's, "We need a way to spy on the showers to help make Percy and Annabeth's little get-together a success," and as the pale boy was busy planning, he didn't notice the relief Leo hid with a wide grin. The floorboards were safe for another day.

"Finally going after his 'stormy seductress', is he?" he asked smugly, nervousness dissipating to be replaced by amusement, and Frank gave him a curious glance.

"How do _you_ know about that?" the shapeshifter asked, puzzled, and Leo gave a devilish grin.

"You really _should_ keep your conversations quieter," the firebug advised with a small laugh, making the other occupants of the room blush slightly, but then Nico shook his head to clear it and focused back on the task at hand.

"So, Percy and Annabeth. D'you think you could...?" Nico began, but he trailed off with a little choking noise as Leo merely crossed to the wall, tapped a little rhythm on it, and slid it up to reveal a flatscreen TV set into the wall. He turned it on with a push of a button, and a picture of Annabeth showering immediately flickered into life.

Nico, Jason, and Frank stared at the grinning Valdez with unabashedly incredulous expressions. Finally, though, Nico cleared his throat and took a breath.

"Has that always been there?" he asked bluntly, not one to beat around the bush, and Leo nodded unabashedly with a bright grin. Then he glanced at the TV, blushed furiously as the implications registered in his mind, and rushed to correct his blunder.

"In case there are ever intruders. We can see where they are, but if _they_ tried to turn them on, they'd explode," Leo explained hurriedly, still red in the face, and the other three breathed a sigh of relief.

"And you've never turned them on before now, right?" Jason asked, a bit teasing, but his grin faded the longer Leo stared at him, wide-eyed as a deer in the headlights. Finally, after a long moment, Leo smiled perhaps a bit _too_ widely and clapped a hand on Jason's shoulder.

"Of course not," he said cheerily, whirling on his heel to rush through the door once again. Jason eyes the door in slight trepidation, but of course Leo couldn't resist.

"By the way, nice birthmark Grace!" his voice called out from the deck, smug as the grin everyone _knew_ he was wearing, and Jason's eyes widened before narrowing to angry slits.

"Where's-" Nico started to ask, but before he could finish Jason launched himself off the bed and into the hall, a demigod-shaped blur shouting expletives at the engineer.

"Saw him changing once. It's on his ass," Frank informed the confused son of Hades with barely repressed amusement, and the boy gave a snickered 'oh' of understanding before turning his attention to the TV and giving a sharky grin.

"Let's see what we'll see," he said smugly, picking up the remote next to the TV stand.

Percy ran over several plans in his head on the way to the showers, some of them being truly brilliant but most of them also being ridiculous. Because really, where was he supposed to get a herd of rhinoceroses at this hour? And that much parsley was going to be _expensive_ if he went in that direction.

Eh, no matter. He had just thought of a truly foolproof plan, though it was the most ridiculous of the lot, and he was a bit anxious as to its implementation. So many things could go wrong...

...But then, so many things could go _right_ as well.

"I'm not a demigod if I don't take a few risks..." he rationalized to himself, then took a deep breath and assumed a nonchalant expression as he opened the door to the showers.

Annabeth jumped as she caught sight of who, exactly, had just invaded the shower room, and Percy gave a small smile and a wave as he dumped his change of clothes and towel on the bench. The daughter of Athena immediately darted behind the shallow wall that separated her stall from the next, shouting, "Percy, what are you doing?! Why are you in here?"

"Same reason you are, Wise Girl. Although, maybe you're not so wise if you can't fathom the use of a shower," Percy teased as he removed his shirt, dark hair getting even _more_ messed up by the rustling fabric.

Annabeth immediately bristled at the insult, hissing at him, "I _know_ what showers are for, Seaweed Brain. What I _don't_ know is why you think it's okay for you to be here at the same time as me."

Percy had to stifle a laugh at this, shooting the blonde an incredulous look. "Really, Annabeth?" he asked her, " _That's_ what you're worried about? _Modesty_? In case you've forgotten, I've seen it all before."

His fingers moved to the clasp on his belt, and Annabeth's cheeks flamed red, "Well yes, but that was different!" she protested, eyes wild with something she was trying to pass off as anger but couldn't. Percy raised an eyebrow.

"I fail to see your reasoning," the son of Poseidon drawled, "Contrary to your nickname, I _do_ have a brain, and it is perfectly capable of restraining itself from such activities if I tell it to."

With that, he dropped his pants and underwear, and Annabeth failed to suppress the tiny 'eep' that escaped her lips. She ducked back behind the wall and stayed there this time, and so Percy took it upon himself to walk over to turn on the shower next to hers, humming a little tune as he waited for it to heat up.

"I like my showers to go as hot as I can stand." he said conversationally, directing his voice to the nervous blonde, "Gets me all relaxed."

"I like my showers cold," Annabeth replied instantly, mocking him by repeating his words, "Gets me all alert."

Suppressing a chuckle, Percy stepped into the shower and let out a little noise of content as the heated water began melting his aches and pains away. Over in the next stall, Annabeth pressed her lips together into an angry line.

 _Stupid Percy_ , she thought, _Being so adorable and hot at the same time. Why does he have to make it so hard to stay away?_

"Annabeth? You still there?" came his voice, amused and slightly worried, then became hopeful at his, "I don't have to perform mouth-to-mouth on your unconscious body, do I?"

A single, angry noise forced its way past Annabeth's clenched teeth, but luckily the water drowned it out. Out loud, she said, "I'm _fine_ , Seaweed Brain. But _you_ won't be if you don't get _out_ of here!"

A surprised noise reached her ears. "What?" he asked incredulously, "But I just got in!"

"Just _GO!_ " she nearly yelled. Silence met her remark, silence except for the rush of water, until a single, harsh sigh came. And then, quite unexpectedly (or perhaps not), Percy stepped around the corner and leaned against the wall, eyeing her with a combination of fear, sadness, and annoyance.

"Is this about that curse?" he asked bluntly, and she froze.

With another sigh, he pressed his lips into a hard, thin line of anger and looked off down the length of the room. One of his hands rose to brush water from his eyes, and he closed his eyes before slowly inhaling...and slowly exhaling. Then he faced her once more, eyes determined.

"What did the curse say?" he asked her, voice firm, and so she told him.

"It said…" she began, faltering a bit before pressing on, "...it said that I was supposed to fall in love with Luke, a long time ago. Except something went wrong; I broke Eros' arrow and fell for you, instead. So Eros cursed me to outlive the one I fell for."

Once again, absolute silence after this proclamation, the steam filling the space between them.

"And you never thought it might be a self-fulfilling prophecy?" Percy asked her quietly, eyes narrowing to glare at some invisible deity hovering over her right shoulder, "Because I might not know a lot of things, but I know me. And I _know_ that the pain of losing you would make me distance myself, would make me more reckless."

His eyes focused on her. "Because Annabeth? The only reason I'm careful is all of you. The seven of the quest, plus Nico, Reyna, and my mom. If one of you distanced yourself from me because of a stupid curse, I wouldn't say 'okay', would I?"

Annabeth swallowed hard, eyes wide and blurry in the steam, but through her raging emotions she managed to nod. "No, you wouldn't," she admitted, "You'd fight it."

"Damn right I'd fight it!" he snapped angrily, "I might just fight it anyways! I'll go to Croatia or wherever Eros is now, snap his bow in half, and _make_ him take the curse back."

Annabeth laughed loudly, unable to help herself. Now _that_ sounded like Percy.

"So tell me Annabeth," he said to her, smiling now as well, "Tell me if you don't want to be with me anymore, as boyfriend and girlfriend. We can stay friends, because we're both mature enough for that."

Annabeth almost contested this, because this was _Percy_ , but then she realized that he totally _was_ mature enough to push his romantic feelings aside for something so important to him. So she stayed silent, and he began speaking again.

"But if you're only distancing yourself because of that stupid curse, I will shower you in hugs and kisses and as many dates as I can before I go off to bury my foot so far up Eros' ass, it ends up behind his eyes," he told her, impassioned and serious and wow he would do it and _Oh Gods he_ would too _do it_.

Annabeth flung herself forward and wrapped her arms around Percy's neck, pressing a heated kiss to his lips before pulling back and staring seriously into his eyes, stern and firm.

"Percy Jackson," she said seriously, glaring into his eyes, "If you do _anything_ to frivolously endanger yourself before reaching the ripe old age of eighty six, I will trudge down to the Underworld and drag you out by your ear simply to have the pleasure of killing you myself."

Percy, with the smuggest smirk that was ever smugly smirked, leaned down and captured her lips with his own once more, pulling her close and letting her know just how much he loved her (no, that was not a euphemism).


End file.
